Bank of France Governor François Villeroy de Galhau said his successor must be independent and committed to Europe after his early resignation gave President Emmanuel Macron a surprise opportunity to pick the next central bank chief.
“Competence is of course necessary, and the independence that underpins credibility and expertise, and independence has several dimensions,” Villeroy said on Wednesday at the finance committee of the National Assembly.
He added that his replacement must be “firmly anchored in Europe,” noting that the Bank of France operates within the framework of EU treaties and the euro, which he called “a tremendous collective success.”
The central bank chief announced last week that he would quit in June, cutting short a second six-year term that was due to end in October 2027, six months after the presidential elections in which Macron cannot run.
The accelerated timeline that will allow Macron to appoint France’s next central bank head has irked opposition parties, including far-right leader Marine Le Pen’s National Rally. Polls show she or her protégé, Jordan Bardella, are in a strong position to win elections next spring.
Le Pen ran for French president in 2017 on a pledge to pull France from the euro. While she has since reversed course on that plan, her party remains critical of European institutions and has called for Paris to take back powers from Brussels.
Speaking at the finance committee on Wednesday, National Rally lawmaker Jean-Philippe Tanguy said that after periods of missing its 2% inflation target the European Central Bank “is useless and actually doesn’t know what it’s doing.” He also quipped that reports ECB chief Christine Lagarde will also leave her post early indicate she and Villeroy are victims of Macron in an “epidemic of resignations.”
Villeroy responded that Lagarde’s early departure seemed to be a rumour rather than factual information. He repeated that his own resignation was a deeply personal decision to run a charitable foundation for underprivileged children.
“Nobody asked me to leave and those who know me know that if I’d been asked, I would have refused,” he said.